Heart-Felt Support for Peter Morrison
Peter Morrison is someone who has a life story of overcoming obstacles. Born with radial club arms, he was determined to show the world he could do anything, and so became an artist, working with the difficult medium of metal. So it was no surpise to those who knew him that when he suffered from heart failure at an early age of around 50 he kept going for a long time afterwards before getting to this point. But the cardiologists are amazed at how long he’s managed to live with his current heart in the shape he was in, and how he was still moving and going when his heart was only pumping through 10% of how much blood a heart usually can. In 2024, Peter’s heart got to the point where it couldn’t keep going, however. At first it just looked like decreased energy, but when he went into the hospital they knew it was his heart and they changed his medicines and he kept going, but after the third time in the hospital, he finally went to the advanced heart failure center at Massachusetts General Hospital, which is one of the best in cardiac care. After two weeks of numerous tests, they decided the best course of action for Peter was to get an artifiicial heart pump — the LVAD. Peter wasn’t eligible for transplant because his heart was too weak, essentially, but after some time on the LVAD they may put him on the transplant list. So Peter went through the LVAD surgery at the beginning of March 2025.
Updates (5)
March 22, 2025
Goals met -- for now. Thanks to several generous family and friends who donated directly to us, we've met our fundraising goals at this time. Thank you to everyone for your generosity! We may need to reopen this in the future when we get a good accounting of what the expenses have been, and certainly will when/if Peter gets on a transplant list, but we're feeling well cared-for at the moment.
March 16, 2025
Today is the third full day at home, and the first one without a visiting nurse or visiting physical therapist or occupational therapist, so the first one where we can relax a little, but it also means I (Cindy) have to do all the dressing changes and shots, so the relaxing hasn't actually begun yet. Thursday night, with help, we got the first Litter Robot installed. So far I'm only sure 1 of 3 cats is using it, and definitely sure our largest cat hasn't yet. The middle cat is close enough in weight to the youngest and sly enough in movement that I can't be sure about him. But having one less cat to scoop after is still helping my sore back! All the robots so far (Litter Robot & Roomba) come with apps that ask you to name the robot. Because of people with VADs being called VADers, I'm giving everything Star Wars names. The Litter Robot is "Ewok Box" and the Roomba is "Darth Roomba." If you have better suggestions, let me know! I'm thinking of renaming them both to robots -- like Roomba2D2 and BoxB8 or BB3 (for 3 cats). Yesterday we also had house cleaners come for the second time. My day of "relaxing" is actually going to probably be a day of figuring out where everything is now that it's cleaned up. Took me an hour last night to find what I needed to find before going to bed! Most of it was in our daughter's room in four big empty bins I had put in there for her to use in getting rid of stuff she no longer wants. (She comes home for spring break Thursday.) The cats, other than the youngest, are terrorized by visitors, so have been in hiding for most of the time Peter's been home except the evenings, when we're finally alone. I'm recognizing this is also slowing adjustment to the Ewok Box!During the last month, I've gotten used to living alone for the first time, and doing the providing & care for myself and the cats -- keeping us clean & fed. Now we add Peter to the mix. He's doing more and more for himself -- dressing, getting small things from the kitchen -- but I'm still doing a lot between meals and medicine and rearranging and moving things to make it convenient for his care. He came home so quickly that I wasn't completely done with what I wanted to accomplish, and while I am now about 80% there, it's slower going with taking care of the five of us (cats included). I take the breaks between meds and meals to do updates like this, or get some of those other little jobs done. I'm behind on a lot of the other tasks of life, but sometimes that's just life! Peter's doing amazingly well -- they said he'd be in the ICU a week to a week and a half minimum, and he was there exactly a week. They said he'd be in the hospital after surgery 2-4 weeks and then maybe rehab, and he left under the minimum at 13 days! But that doesn't mean there aren't set-backs and struggles. he's having trouble with his digestive system because of all the meds they put him on, and his blood is too think requiring extra meds including injections that also mean more visiting nurse appointments to check the blood. One or the other has come now with the unusual restriction: NO green vegetables!! I've realized that coming home on the earlier side also means you come home more tired and less prepared in a lot of ways -- he's still learning how to handle everything himself from his equipment and meds to what he can and can't do with his restrictions.
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Guestbook
March 17, 2025
Praying for your recovery.
Christina LaRose
March 16, 2025
Sending you prayers of healing!
Linh Nguyen
March 13, 2025
Sending love and healing wishes for this journey from the members of the UUMA.
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